Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders are characterized by a variety of debilitating affective and cognitive impairments. For example, a clinical sign of individuals with Alzheimer's disease is progressive cognition deterioration. Worldwide, approximately 24 million people have dementia, 60% of these cases are due to Alzheimer's.
Other CNS disorders include, e.g., mood disorders, age-related cognitive decline, and neurological disorders (e.g., epilepsy, schizophrenia, Fragile X mental retardation syndrome and Huntington's disease). The effects of CNS disorders are devastating to the quality of life of those afflicted as well as that of their families. Moreover, CNS disorders impose an enormous health care burden on society. A number of CNS disorders, as well as other conditions that affect cognitive function, have been associated with alterations in the morphology and/or density of dendritic spines, membranous protrusions from dendritic shafts of neurons that serve as highly specialized structures for the formation, maintenance, and function of synapses.